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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // November/December 2015
and electronic games, will help drive the
success of lottery into a future rich with
opportunity. The merger of GTECH and
IGT ensures that we have the depth and
scale of capabilities to help lotteries to
take full advantage of growth and work
collaboratively with them to shape the op-
timum business model evolving with the
changing marketplace.
IGT has increased its investment in
lottery-specific research & development
(R&D) by over 50%. Additionally, tradi-
tional lottery receives indirect R&D ben-
efits from other verticals, like iLottery,
iGaming, social gaming, and electronic
games. The real-world consumer market,
after all, is not segmented into silos that
exist independently from one another.
Our new operating structure facilitates the
cross-pollination of R&D and marketing
intelligence so that our lottery perspective
is now informed by a comprehensive un-
derstanding of the whole games-of-chance
industry and marketplace.
Legacy IGT investments in R&D and
the technologies of mobile, social gam-
ing, player user-interfaces, and consumer
behavior as it relates to the broader field
of game-play, all far exceeded what legacy
GTECH had at its disposal. The fruit of
these investments is now being leveraged
across the entire base of IGT customers.
The legacy GTECH and IGT cultures
were always focused on innovation and
customer satisfaction. Combined, we are
engrained with a passion for innovation
and offer unparalleled breadth and depth
of experienced global resources, across all
disciplines to support the ongoing success
of our customers.
You have experience in all the different disci-
plines of business operations within IGT. That
career path is typically applied to those who
are being groomed for a senior management
position. How have these different perspec-
tives informed or shaped your management
style? Too, from an enterprise-management
point of view, how are the different world
views and perspectives of different corporate
divisions integrated into a single harmonious
corporate mission?
J. Gendron:
I’ve been fortunate to
work in many different areas of the com-
pany and to work for some truly great
leaders. I’ve learned an incredible amount
from my superiors through the years. Lot-
tery is a complex and nuanced industry
that intersects government and gaming. A
broad and diverse perspective is necessary
in order to lead us forward, and effectively
respond to business issues within the ap-
propriate context.
It is a challenge to integrate the different
perspectives of the leaders in finance, man-
ufacturing, product development, market-
ing, distribution, government relations,
communications, sales, etc. The different
disciplines bring differing priorities to the
execution of the overall corporate mission.
That is as it should be. However, creating
alignment between these perspectives is
often challenging. That’s why diversity of
senior leadership experience is so necessary.
Each of us has passion for one of the areas
and our business approach reflects that. Ex-
perience across multiple disciplines enables
us to appreciate the priorities of our col-
leagues and be better equipped to find the
mutually agreeable solutions that result in
optimizing value for the customer. This is
why IGT has prioritized diverse business
training opportunities to round out our se-
nior leadership.
That’s evidenced by what appears to be quite
an explosion of innovation from IGT. The
trade-show exhibits at G2E and NASPL re-
vealed an incredible variety of new technol-
ogy and products. It seems like the integration
with IGT is all coming together and now you
are launching the fruits of that process.
J. Gendron:
It is an ongoing process.
It certainly did not happen overnight, or
without tremendous effort, focus, and en-
ergy. Our most senior leadership, the archi-
tects of the merger, always had a clear vision
for how this would unfold. Notwithstand-
ing this, it has taken the entire organization
to pull together to execute on that vision to
get us to this point. And, of course, we’ve
only just begun. This is an exciting time of
tremendous transition for the entire indus-
try. The opportunities are incredible, but
the way forward will have challenges. IGT
is set on an accelerated track to deliver on
this potential—to enable our customers to
take full advantage of the opportunities,
and to future-proof against the inevitable
challenges within the industry.
The opposition of NACS to meeting the needs
of its own customers is frustrating for many
of us. What can we do to enlist the support of
NACS for online iLottery sales?
J. Gendron:
NACS leadership contin-
ues to lobby against Internet sales, and un-
fortunately promote the false notion that
online sales will hurt the sales of its mem-
bers’ bricks and mortar locations. To con-
vince NACS that online sales will raise the
watermark across all distribution channels,
U.S. lotteries need to continue to develop
programs that will prove what the interna-
tional lotteries have seen over the last two
decades. In both Georgia and Michigan,
for example, the lotteries developed a retail
component to their online sales program
which proved vital to build retail coopera-
tion and trust. This proved to be very suc-
cessful. The sales of traditional lottery sold
in retail stores have grown right alongside
Internet sales channel. We look forward to
similar results with the Kentucky Lottery
when it begins online sales shortly.
As an industry, our collective messaging
needs to be that the land-based retailer is
Jay Gendron Interview
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